


Blood on Snow

by Judy_The_Dreamer



Series: Stand-alone Bingo Fills 2k19 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Flashbacks, Gen, Heavy Angst, Mental Instability, Open Ending, TW: Mental Instability, Unhappy Ending, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, botched assassination attempt, tw: mention of past torture and abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 07:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22032346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judy_The_Dreamer/pseuds/Judy_The_Dreamer
Summary: The Soldier has a mission, but the past is slowing him down.Same universe as On a Dark Road.
Relationships: Pepper Potts & Tony Stark
Series: Stand-alone Bingo Fills 2k19 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1418155
Kudos: 3
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019





	Blood on Snow

**Author's Note:**

> This once was part of a larger fic that was partially written to fill a couple bingo squares. The fic was never completed and will thus never be posted in its entirety, but I didn't want to waste the effort I put into filling a square. This takes place in the same universe of On a Dark Road. 
> 
> Un-betaed.
> 
> Written for the Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019 - Square C3: Free

67 hours, 11 minutes, 22 seconds. The asset religiously kept track of the amount of time that had passed since his last check-in. From experience, he knew that the seventy-second hour would bring a deadly kind of lethargy, making it practically impossible to focus without receiving new supplements. He’d be more prone to failure if he kept putting off meeting his handler. At the same time, returning empty-handed could be just as disastrous as carelessness. It would merit the chair for sure. The asset wanted to prevent the chair at all costs.

Certainly now that he’d got the flickers again. 

For some reason unknown to the asset the treatment became more painful if he’d experienced the flickers. Afterwards, he’d remember nothing but the scorching pain of the current scouring the inside of his head for days. Not even his own role or which tongue his handlers were ordering him around in.

He liked his state of mind as it was, thank you. Focused on a target, not drooling into the blankets of his sleeping cot. He needed for nothing but the weight of the rifle in his hands and, maybe, a bite to eat. He’d smelled a lovely blend of spices last night as he’d tailed the target back to his mansion, motor bike rumbling away under him. Thanks to the sudden clench of his empty stomach, he’d nearly driven off the road.

His handler could not know how fallible the asset had become.

Repressing a groan as another spasm wrecked through his innards, the asset shouldered his rifle and peered through the scope at the mansion sprawled out across the garden. He’d perched himself on the garden shed roof at the far back of the grounds. The position afforded him a perfect view on the back windows and the people living on the other side of the glass.

Tony Stark , current threat-level 9, was slumbering peacefully, occasionally stirring to utter a few stilted words in his sleep. One time the woman resting adjacent to him woke up and shot him an grumpy look before dropping back off to sleep. The asset felt an unreasonable amount of irritation at the way her red hair now glinted in the early sunlight. A needless distraction.

He’d reached out to his handler for identification of his target's unfamiliar accomplice, but he’d yet to receive any kind of confirmation. Doubtlessly, the bald man who’d instructed his handler as to the location of his previous target wanted to keep contact to a minimum. The coward. Not even man enough to pull the trigger himself.

Wait, the asset stilled, confused as to the vehemence of his own thoughts. That wasn’t right. He wasn’t supposed to...judge. (He refused to use the word ‘feel’, terrified at its implication.) His impartiality seemed to come and go with the flickers, and he was allowing his discomfort to get to him.

Still, he was loath to give the flickers up.

They were pleasing, though in equal measures painful and comforting.

Bright blue eyes, the whisper of a name, a sharp-dressed man reading him the specs of his new rifle.

A gift. 

A cunning smirk.

Stark.

The asset flinched as suddenly the image of the man overlaid that of Tony Stark, threat-level 9, and their features lined up like a seamless photograph. One layer started to age rapidly, hair greying, skin deteriorating. The asset watched in horror as blood streamed from the man’s mouth, face crushing inwards as if being hit with brute force.

Had somebody else taken the shot? He trembled in the cold, desperately trying to find the cause of the injuries through his scope. The asset was alone, only a rabbit scuttled through the snow. He shot it down in a blink.

Red seeped into the ground as he bolted.

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far, please consider leaving a comment or some kudos. <3


End file.
